28 is Enough

Its tough to look away from a story that begins, I was one of twenty-eight children born to my dad and his three wives. So commences Flora Jessops Church of Lies, in which the former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints details the horrors of indoctrination and child abuse from which she attempted to flee throughout her childhood.

Jessop writes with candor about life inside a polygamy cult, her attempts to live in harmony with her sister-wives, and her fathers sexual abuse, which began when Jessop was 8. Despite the gruesome hardships she details, Jessop manages some sly humor. I've been called apostate, vigilante, and crazy bitch, and maybe I am, she offers. But some people call me a hero, and I'd like to think they're right, too.

Jessop, who lives in Phoenix with her husband and children, reads from and discusses her memoir at Changing Hands Bookstore.